The present invention relates to passenger carrying transit systems, especially transit systems operating within an urban context which are intended to transport people back and forth along a commercial street, or to transport people from an intercept parking facility located on the edge of a commercial district to locations within the district, and where there are compelling reasons for passengers to get on and off the transit vehicles at intervals along the route as, for example, where there is shopping or business activity along the route.
It is an advantage to operate such transit systems in a dedicated lane which is separate from street traffic such that the transit system can maintain its schedule and capacity in spite of local traffic congestion. It is also an advantage to locate this dedicated lane on the street plane and within the street right-of-way itself, thus eliminating the substantial costs of obtaining other rights-of-way, or the costs of constructing elevated or underground conveyance means.
To have a useful capacity such a transit system would require the operation of multiple transit vehicles in both directions along its route at the same time. It is obvious that two dedicated lanes meet this requirement by providing a separate path for transit vehicles traveling in each direction. Two dedicated lanes, however, would often require the street be widened, which is impossible in many urban contexts, or the displacement of one or more of the local traffic lanes, or the displacement of curbside parking on both sides of the street-all modifications which adversely impact the functionality of the street. If, on the other hand, transit vehicles, or trams, could be made to operate in both directions in only one dedicated lane instead of two, on-street dedicated lane transit systems would become feasible in most urban contexts. Such a single dedicated lane could be created by displacing the curbside parking on only one side of a typical street, leaving both sidewalks, traffic lanes and parking on the opposite side of the street unaffected. However, it is unobvious how to accommodate multiple, oppositely moving transit vehicles, in this single, dedicated lane.